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Friday, June 6, 2014

Impressions #6: Murdered: Soul Suspect

This
week, I purchased one of the most unique games that I have played so
far this year: Murdered: Soul Suspect. Set in the town of
Salem, Massachusetts, Murdered has players assume the role of Ronan
O'Connor. Ronan is a detective working for the Salem Police
Department. At the start of the game, he is killed attempting to
apprehend the “Bell Killer”, a mysterious serial killer who marks
his victims with the symbol of a bell. Unfortunately, our hero is
unable to move on to the next world without settling all of his
unfinished business in this one. Therefore, the quest is on to solve
the mystery of the Bell Killer. Because the game just came out and
the mystery is a big part of the game, this article will be spoiler
free.

It is
pretty simple to understand the basic premises of the story. The game
poses a mystery and asks the player to join the main character in
solving it. Honestly, the case of the Bell Killer is pretty easy to
solve. I figured out most of it by the end of my first hour into the
game. Honestly, I expect most players with even a passing familiarity
either with mystery tropes or the history of Salem to figure out what
is going on. Having said that, I acknowledge that it could have been
really easy to throw this in the other direction. It would be trivial
to hide the whole case behind some last minute reveal or piece of
evidence that no person could be reasonably expect to see coming,
like a typical CSI episode. Out of those two choices, I would rather
the approach taken in this game. It is a hard balance between these
two extremes to maintain. While the writers did not fully succeed, I
must applaud the effort.

Despite
having many of the trappings of a classic noir story like a gruff
detective with a bizarre case falling on their lap, the game is
nothing like that. Ronan seems a little gruff, but he does not go
overboard in these traits. This extends to most of the cast as well.
Every character feels believable. None of them are incredible
near-superhero people with amazing abilities. While Ronan's partner
is a medium, she behaves in a way one might expect a fifteen year old
girl who can see/talk to ghosts to act. Overall, I actually related
fairly well to the cast. This was partially the reason why I stuck
with it well after figuring most of the case out myself. By the time
I solved the case, I felt a strong enough connection to the cast that
I wanted to see how they resolved everything.

In terms
of gameplay, it is tempting to believe that Murdered: Soul Suspect
is just another “story game” along the lines of some of David
Cage's work. This is again not the case. In actuality, Murdered feels
more at home with games along the lines of LA Noire or Monkey Island.
By that, I mean that it is very much a point-and-click adventure.
When it is embracing this style, the game is very good. In a given
investigation area, the game will pose to a question to the player
like (as an example) “What was the killer doing here?”. With this
question in mind, players have to look around the area for clues that
could help them answer this question. The game helpfully says how
many clues are in a given area and points out when the player has
left an investigation zone, so it is unlikely for players to get
lost. Further, all the clues and story information gathered are
conveniently stored in a menu to view at any time. Once the player
feels like enough clues have been collected, they can use them to
answer the question and discover their next lead in the
investigation.

Unfortunately,
the game, like most point-and-click adventures, tend to suffer from
problems inherit to the genre. That is, instead of using what seems
to be perfectly logical, the player is forced to think about what the
designer considers to be logical. To demonstrate this point, after
following a lead, Ronan heads to a church. One of the clues in this
area prompts him to ask “What clue that I picked up lead me to the
church?”. Rather than selecting the clue that lead to the
deduction, the player must instead choose Ronan's revelation than he
needed to go to the church (because story information and deductions
are treated like any other clue). Luckily, this did not come up too
often for me in the later segments of the game. However, this
presents an unnecessary learning curve for players that might not
otherwise exist. Still, this is clearly where the game is at its
strongest and most comfortable.

The
other half of the main gameplay loop is noticeably weaker. The
spiritual world that Ronan inhabits is a sort of limbo that is
overlaid on top of the real world. In this realm, other ghosts who
have their own baggage dwell. Some of these spirits have given in to
their intense negative emotions and become demons. These demons have
lost any form of humanity, believing that they can regain it by
absorbing other human souls. Ronan cannot fight these demons head-on.
What he has to do is hide, either in a human's body or in the
ecoplasmic remains of another spirit. When the opening presents
itself, the player can sneak behind the demon and exorcise it.
Through triggering TVs and radios poltergeist-style, it is also
possible to create these opening by distracting the demons.

These
sections of the game are not particularly offensive. However, I found
that I died to them a lot, often for stupid reasons. They proved to
be easily the worst and most frustrating element of the entire game.
Worse, they do not seem to have a real purpose in the game beyond
serving as an arbitrary obstacle. Considering the game can already be
beaten in an afternoon, it feels weird to call it out for needless
padding. However, that is how I would describe the ghosts. In fact,
the game might be stronger by removing quite a few of their sections
out.

Overall,
Murdered: Soul Suspect is one of the most unique games I played this
year. I am really glad that I bought it. While I do have gripes about
the game, I cannot deny that it has the kind of charm that comes from
a really good B-movie. I am not entirely sure that it is worth the
$50 asking price, I would easily recommend this to anyone with even a
vague interest in the point-and-click genre. It works in a ways that
many other games do not. Moreover, it is a nice breath of fresh air.
I am saddened because despite how much I like the game, I do not
expect it to do well. I expect it to inherit the same space Alpha
Protocol does for me, where only a small cult following will buy the
game. Considering that the people who made it, while far from
perfect, were definitely on to something, that is truly a shame.